Worldview: Apartheid's legacy lives on in South Africa’s unequal schools

Key topics:Armed gangs threaten teachers in Khayelitsha’s township schools.Children travel 80km daily for safer learning environments.Education success is still tied to race, income, and location..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.The auditorium doors will open for BNIC#2 on 10 September 2025 in Hermanus. For more information and tickets, click here..By Kerry Lanaghan.More than 30 years after apartheid ended, vast inequalities in South Africa’s education system persist, especially in crime-ridden townships like Khayelitsha near Cape Town. Amid gang violence and insecurity, some parents are making extraordinary sacrifices to send their children to better schools in former white-only suburbs, often far from home.Sibahle Mbasana, a mother of three, moved her children from a dangerous local school to a state school 40km away in Simon’s Town. Her decision followed repeated incidents of armed gangs threatening teachers and stealing from schools in full view of students. The local school offered little security, leaving parents like Mbasana to seek safer alternatives, even if it meant long daily commutes.Her children now face exhausting 11-hour school days, rising before 5am and returning home by late afternoon. Although the Simon’s Town school provides better facilities and a safer learning environment, the journey is taxing, and the risks remain. Her son Lifalethu once made headlines after being forced to walk part of the 40km route home when he lost his bus ticket, prompting a desperate search by police and civilians.Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s largest township, reflects the lingering effects of apartheid policies like the Bantu Education Act, which intentionally underfunded black education. Despite the end of legal segregation, many township schools still lack infrastructure and security. Teachers have reportedly faced extortion from gangs demanding protection money, with threats of violence if they refuse. The situation has become so dire that some teachers request transfers, fearing for their lives.While a few township schools succeed against the odds, the majority suffer from overcrowding, underresourcing, and unsafe conditions. Private security and increased police presence have been introduced in some areas, but these measures are limited and reactive.The disparities between schools are stark. In affluent or historically white suburbs, public schools are better resourced and have smaller class sizes. These schools often accept township children because local middle-class families now prefer private institutions, creating space. However, this option is only viable for parents who can afford the associated transport and school fees.Education experts and organisations like Amnesty International highlight the systemic inequality. A 2020 Amnesty report revealed that children in South Africa’s top 200 schools achieve more math distinctions than those combined in the following 6,600 schools. School success remains largely determined by race, geography, and income.The situation has worsened due to recent funding cuts. Over 2,400 teaching posts were lost in the Western Cape after the government underfunded a wage agreement. Poor schools, especially in townships, were hardest hit and could not replace staff due to budget constraints. This has led to larger class sizes and increased pressure on already stretched educators.Experts argue that post-apartheid governments, constrained by inherited debt and fiscal limits, have failed to invest adequately in township education. Stellenbosch University’s Prof Aslam Fataar believes the political will to transform these schools has long since faded, and without significant investment, the future remains bleak.Parents like the Mbasanas, trapped in violent neighbourhoods and reliant on failing public infrastructure, feel abandoned. Their daily struggle underscores the deep, unresolved inequality in South Africa’s education system - an apartheid legacy that, for many, never truly ended.(This article is a précis of a piece originally published in BBC and can be read in full here.)